Metaglossia: The Translation World

ZAMORA. El escritor, filólogo y traductor Agustín García Calvo, nacido en Zamora en 1926, murió ayer en su ciudad natal, después de una vida con una trayectoria intelectual marcada por su rebeldía ante el poder establecido y en la que ganó tres Premios Nacionales.

El fallecimiento del escritor, que será enterrado hoy en el cementerio de San Atilano sin ceremonia religiosa, ha desencadenado una sucesión de reacciones desde diversos colectivos, sobre todo del mundo cultural y desde la sociedad zamorana. Su compañera durante 36 años, Isabel Escudero, señaló a Efe que García Calvo era "el último combatiente contra las mentiras de la realidad". La poetisa recordó que el escritor y filósofo estuvo hasta el último momento, "y siempre de viva voz como el último Sócrates", hablando a los jóvenes, que le siguen por centenares. "Hace quince días fue a la tertulia pública que se celebra los miércoles en el Ateneo de Madrid y a la que acuden un centenar de personas, en su mayoría jóvenes, para debatir cuestiones de la realidad, de la física, las matemáticas. Es algo muy vivo y muy único".

SU TRAYECTORIA García Calvo se doctoró en Filología Clásica por la Universidad de Salamanca, donde ejerció como profesor de Latín, fue catedrático de instituto y obtuvo también la cátedra de Filología Latina en la Universidad de Sevilla.

Fue uno de los catedráticos perseguidos por el régimen franquista y, debido a las revueltas estudiantiles de febrero de 1965, fue apartado de la cátedra.

Su obra mereció el reconocimiento de tres Premios Nacionales, en concreto el de Ensayo en 1990, de Literatura Dramática en 1999 y de Traducción al conjunto de su obra en 2006. Muchos de sus trabajos los publicó en sus propias editoriales, Lumia y Lucina, cuya sede estaba en la gran casa en la que vivía, en el casco histórico de Zamora, en la Rúa de los Notarios.

El autor expuso su teoría general del lenguaje en una trilogía con los títulos Del lenguaje (1983), De la construcción (Del lenguaje II), ambos libros editados en la década de los años ochenta, y Del aparato (Del lenguaje III), en 1999.

García Calvo, centrado sobre todo en la poesía, escribió también teatro, novela y ensayo, género este último en el que publicó títulos como Lalia (1973), ¿Qué es el Estado? (1977), Contra el tiempo (1993) y De Dios (1996).

Su actividad como traductor ha abarcado textos de Shakespeare, y diversos del latín y el griego, entre los que se encuentra Los carboneros, de Aristófanes. Una de las últimas obras en las que participó García Calvo fue el documental de Basilio Martín Patino sobre el movimiento de indignados del 15-M, y que utilizó el nombre de uno de sus poemas, Libre te quiero, para dar título a una cinta que se presentó en la sección Tiempo de Historia de la última edición de la Seminci.

la façon d’un spectre, Hamlet n’a de cesse de hanter Daniel Mesguich. Pour la quatrième fois, il remonte au théâtre la célèbre tragédie de William Shakespeare, chose qu’il entreprend « tous les dix ans ». Parallèlement, l’acteur, metteur en scène et professeur de théâtre français a également tenu à traduire et à présenter cette œuvre dans un ouvrage récemment paru aux éditions Albin Michel. Hamlet apparaît sous un jour inédit.

L’intrigue

Hamlet, c’est tout d’abord une plongée dans les affres du Moyen Age. Plus précisément, il s’agit de l’histoire d’un prince du royaume du Danemark, qui sur les remparts de son château entend le fantôme de son père lui révéler que le roi actuel, i.e. son oncle (avec lequel sa mère s’est remariée), l’a fait assassiner pour s’emparer du trône. Le spectre réclame donc vengeance auprès de son fils. Pourtant, Hamlet est un homme plus fait pour le maniement des idées que pour le celui des hommes : finalement, Hamlet ne veut pas châtier un homme, mais plutôt purifier le monde.

Le but de Daniel Mesguich

La grande innovation apportée par le dernier travail de Daniel Mesguich, c’est qu’il a entrepris de traduire Hamlet en homme de théâtre, et non pas comme un traducteur classique. A cet égard, le texte final de Daniel Mesguich est un véritable texte de théâtre, c’est-à-dire qu’il se trouve être singulièrement difficile à prononcer, comme il se doit ! En effet, explique l’auteur, on va généralement au théâtre pour entendre et écouter. C’est donc tout à fait différent de la lecture d’un livre : il n’est pas possible de reprendre un passage qui nous a semblé obscur. Au théâtre, il est vrai qu’il est nécessaire de comprendre du premier coup. Mieux, pour l’auteur, on va au théâtre pour apprendre une langue.

L’auteur a traduit la célèbre tragédie de William Shakespeare dans une langue tout à fait moderne, car Hamlet date bien sûr d’une époque ancienne (1603), durant laquelle l’Angleterre était très académique. Dans le présent ouvrage, Daniel Mesguich a tenté de trouver un point d’équilibre entre la méthode myope littérale et la méthode du poète. Pour l’auteur, traduire c’est se faire l’interprète d’une œuvre. Ainsi, il s’est efforcé de faire entendre le sens des mots.

145 Years of Finnish Shakespeare Retranslation: The Next Move
Nestori SiponkoskiUniversity of Vaasa, Department of English
Abstract
According to the Retranslation Hypothesis, a retranslation always tends to be more faithful to thesource text and culture than the first translation, which in turn tends to reduce the foreignness of thesource text. However, the hypothesis rarely proves to be valid. This finding contests the traditionalway of placing translations along suc
h continuums as ―foreignisation
-
domestication‖.
The study of translations, and especially retranslations, calls for a broader point of view which takes their many-facetedness better into account.
In this paper I will take a look at two of Shakespeare‘s plays which
have recently been retranslated into Finnish and published as books. The purpose is to deal with thepla
ys expressly as Finnish retranslations, that is, as ―newcomers‖ in a distinct group of texts which
is governed by its own translation tradition. I will, above all, focus on the role of the copyeditors of these contemporary retranslations, and discuss how the copyeditors have affected the retranslationsby regulating the way in which the preceding translations are allowed or forbidden to enter theretranslations. By focusing on the concealed work of the copyeditors, I wish to further contest theuncomplicated view of translation offered, for example, by the Retranslation Hypothesis.
1 Introduction
The starting point of th

Shakespeare, a poet who is still making our history
He forged a language that has shaped how the English – and British – see themselves, and set the terms for our imagination
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Neil MacGregor
The Guardian, Monday 15 October 2012 21.30 BST

Designs for the union flag of Great Britain, c.1604. National Library of Scotland
Shelley's famous claim that poets are "the unacknowledged legislators of mankind" rings oddly in the case of Shakespeare. He has always been acclaimed, his words constantly appropriated by those seeking to change the world. The great writers and thinkers who re-imagined Germany at the end of the 18th century were profuse in their admiration for his work. And at the end of the British Museum's current exhibition Shakespeare: Staging the World sits the Robben Island Bible – the copy of Shakespeare's complete works disguised as a Hindu text and smuggled into the prison where anti-apartheid leaders were held captive. Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and others have each marked the passage of Shakespeare that inspired them in their struggle. All knew his work. All found nourishment in it. This is acknowledgement of a high order from people who went on to change their country and their continent.

But how far can we go with this? Did Shakespeare actually change the course of history? This would be a big claim for someone who didn't found an empire, reform a faith or directly challenge the structures of society. It is easy to say, at once: yes, he did; but harder to explain quite how.

In a very literal way, of course, Shakespeare did change the course of history: when it didn't fit the plot he had in mind, he simply rewrote it. His English histories play fast and loose with chronology and fact to achieve the desired dramatic effect, re-ordering history even as it was then understood. Cordelia ought to survive, and Lear should regain his throne; at the real battle of Shrewsbury Hotspur was 40 and Prince Hal 16, not the youthful oppositional contemporaries we all know from Henry IV Part 1. Shakespeare had to backtrack hastily over that play when the descendants of Sir John Oldcastle reacted badly to his version of their revered ancestor; and so Falstaff was born.

It is not at all clear what he himself believed, what his own views of politics, religion and society might have been. He has been seen as everything from the poet champion of accepted social hierarchy and the Elizabethan political settlement to a closet radical and secret Catholic. His caution and ambiguity in political matters and his range and empathy as a dramatic writer make it happily impossible to pin down his intentions. But we can be a bit bolder in considering his effect.

The British Museum's exhibition uses objects from his own time to examine how Shakespeare conjured up an entire world, past and present, before his original audience, the women and men who paid their silver pennies to see his plays at the Rose and the Curtain, the Swan and the Globe. Did Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the theatre change this audience's world and their attitudes to it? Unquestionably. The idea of a public, commercial theatre with an audience that included all social classes was new. For the first time, a whole city – a whole society – could see itself, laugh at itself, think about what it was and what it might become. An unceasing turnover of repertory provided a new arena for the expansion of knowledge, belief and debate, and the arena could be a national one, as the playing companies took this repertory around the country. Shakespeare was a star writer, his name a draw. He was acclaimed by his peers and honoured with a volume of collected works, reinforcing his status and spreading his reach from the theatre to the study.

Le Bénin et la question de la langue

4/10/12 12:30 par Jérôme Carlos (1 commentaire)

La francophonie en sommet. C’est dans quelques jours à Kinshasa, la capitale de la République démocratique du Congo. Les plus hauts dirigeants des pays qui ont en partage le français se réuniront au chevet de cette langue. Une langue en perte de vitesse dans le monde.

Un handicap lourd qui ne saurait laisser indifférents tous ceux qui, pour diverses raisons, entretiennent un certain commerce avec cette langue.

Des pays anciennement francophones, comme le Rwanda, ont fait l’option d’élire l’anglais au rang de langue de travail. Le Gabon vient de déclarer l’anglais, langue d’utilité publique. En attendant qu’il ne devienne le nouveau compagnon de vie du Gabonais. Le Burundi annonce, urbi et orbi, son adhésion au Commonwealth. Il faut croire que c’est le prélude à un mariage d’amour et de raison avec la langue de Shakespeare.

MACBETH. Autor: W. Shakespeare / Traducción: Daniel Zamorano y versión de Javier Daulte / Intérpretes: Leticia Mazur, Débora Zanolli, Margarita Molfino, Alberto Suárez, Joaquín Berthold, William Prociuk, Ezequiel Rodríguez, Fabio Aste, Leonardo Saggese, Alberto Ajaka, Agustín Rittano, Federico Busso, Mónica Antonópulos, Marcelo Pozzi, Emiliano Dionisi, Martin Pugliese, Luciano Cáceres, Julián Calviño, Francisco Pesqueira, Julieta Vallina, Valentino Alonoso, Javier Niklison / Dirección: Javier Daulte / Duración: 135 minutos / Teatro: San Martín.
Nuestra opinión: buena

Lo que iguala al hombre del pasado con el del presente, y probablemente también del futuro, son las pasiones humanas que se mantienen inalterables a través de los siglos. La ambición, los celos, el odio, el amor, el afán de poder, la ambición desmedida, el imperioso impulso de conquistar, avasallar y dominar son las constantes que llevaron a los hombres a la guerra, no importa el maquillaje ni las vestimentas con que se trató siempre de ocultar la pretensión codiciosa de acumular más y más grandeza, ya sea por el dinero o por el poder. De esto dan y seguirán dando testimonios los libros de historia y la realidad.

A team at Swansea University has developed an online tool that allows researchers to compare multiple translations of Shakespeare at the same time to see how much they vary...

A team at Swansea University has developed an online tool that allows researchers to compare multiple translations of Shakespeare at the same time to see how much they vary.

The platform can be used for any text, but has been demonstrated with Act 1, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's Othello, where the eponymous hero gives a persuasive speech about his courtship of Desdemona to her disapproving father Brabantio and others. Users can compare the original base English text (Michael Neill's OUP edition) with any one of 37 different German editions, dating from 1766 to 2010 -- something that the team calls a "translation array".

The most intriguing tool is the "Eddy value" tool which allows you to select individual lines from the scene and compare them to the translations from the 37 different German editions (the aim is to add in further languages and additional scenes, but the project needs more funds to do this). Based on analysis of all of the translations, each of the individual line translations has been awarded a numerical value. The higher the Eddy value, the more distinctive the translation, i.e. the more it stands out from the crowd. The value is calculated using word frequencies in the whole set of translations.

Linguist Tom Cheesman, who heads up the project at Swansea University explains: "If you say 'deviation from a norm', it is misleading, conceptually and statistically. Translation doesn't work like that: people think there's a 'right version' and then various kinds of mistake. No: it's about differing interpretations, not about right and wrong."

En su casa costera de Las Cruces, henchido de la creatividad profana y desafiante que colma su obra, Nicanor Parra cumple hoy 98 años entre el impulso de retomar una traducción de Hamlet y un...

I am excited to announce that the Global Americana Institute has, in partnership with Dar al-Saqi of Beirut brought out a volume of selected writings of Thomas Jefferson in Arabic. It was elegantly translated by Professors Mounira Soliman and Walid Hamamsy of Cairo University and is entitled in Arabic the equivalent of Revolutionary Democracy: How America became the Republic of Liberty.

It has a powerful, brief introduction by prominent Arab intellectual Hazem Saghieh, an editor of al-Hayat newspaper, which expresses admiration for Jefferson’s political thought while not attempting to paper over his personal foibles. Saghieh notes that post-World War II Arab thought has been strangely unengaged with liberal democratic ideas, especially in their American incarnation, but that that is a shame since figures such as Jefferson have much to offer. Of course, elite Arab families know English and travel to the United States, and don’t need this translation. But below that five percent at the top of society with regard to wealth and education, there is now a vast literate Arab middle class numbering in the hundreds of millions, who could not deal with Jefferson’s antique English but could read this translation. At least some of them will be interested in doing so.

JUAN COLE: I am hopeful that the book will find an eager reception in Egypt, Tunisia and other countries yearning for democracy in the Arab world.

....

An amateur Iraqi Shakespeare troupe comes to the Bay Area before performing at the prestigious Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Noticias de ultima hora en español sobre la actualidad nacional, politica, internacional, economia, dinero, deportes, sociedad, religión, salud, sanidad, opinión, cultura, medio ambiente, viajes, internet, televisión, tecnología, gente.

It starts with a whistle. It starts, in fact, with a very sturdy Afghan policewoman pointing fiercely at the crowd. She's at Kabul airport. She's also in Ephesus. She's also on the stage at the Globe.

This is the final weekend of the Shakespeare’s Globe’s massive Globe to Globe project, in which 37 different companies were invited from all over the world to come to perform the full set of Shakespeare’s plays, each in a different language, from IziZulu and Maori to Bangla, Gujarati and Juba Arabic.

I’m afraid I saw just one — The Winter’s Tale in a production from Nigeria that was played in Yoruba. But it was fascinating to see not just a production that so miraculously embodies the spirit of the play in re-telling its plot in broad brushstrokes, but also to experience first-hand something I’ve been told about all season: that the Globe has been attracting an all-new audience to the place for it. An amazing average of 80% of those coming across the season have been new to the venue; I’d be amazed if there’s a better example of outreach work in British theatre.

LAGOS, Nigeria — The deep, croaking-frog rhythm of the talking drums sound out across the stage as canoeists in animal hide row a condemned servant and royal infant into the unknown.

The deep, croaking-frog rhythm of the talking drums sound out across the stage as canoeists in animal hide row a condemned servant and royal infant into the unknown.

The eventual goal of the Swansea University-led global translation project is to establish a complex cultural database of some of the world’s most important pieces of literature such as The Bible, the works of Shakespeare and Homer.

Le sens particulier d'un anniversaire : Shakespeare l’Africain -...

Le grand dramaturge universel est devenu, post mortem, un griot de notre continent.

Cette année, pour l’anniversaire de William Shakespeare, la Royal Shakespeare Company de Stratford-upon-Avon a décidé de célébrer le Shakespeare Mondial. Pour cette manifestation, inaugurée le 22 avril dernier*, la compagnie a invité plusieurs compagnies théâtrales du monde qui ont traduit ou adapté les pièces de Shakespeare. L’Afrique, qui nous intéresse plus particulièrement, est fortement présente avec des tragédies adaptées dans plusieurs pays du continent : le Zimbabwe, le Sénégal, le Mali, la Somalie et la Tunisie, laquelle a proposée une remarquable adaptation de Macbeth qui met en scène le couple déchu Ben Ali. Cette adaptation est intitulée Leïla et Ben : une histoire sanglante. Cette production tunisienne montre combien le répertoire de William Shakespeare demeure plus que jamais d’actualité en Afrique.

Bien que William Shakespeare soit le parfait symbole de la langue et de la culture anglaises, il a acquis, au fil des siècles, une telle universalité et une telle reconnaissance mondiale que nombreux sont les pays qui le revendiquent comme faisant partie de leur culture. Il est vrai que la manière dont le grand dramaturge s’adresse à l’esprit et à la sensibilité, sa manière de décrypter la psychologie des individus, et notamment des gens de pouvoir, justifie l’intérêt littéraire et thématique présent à travers toute l’Afrique, pendant la période coloniale et postcoloniale.

With the 2012 Olympic Games coming up, this year’s Edinburgh International Festival is going into high gear to celebrate the world-famous English playwright.

In partnership with the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival, Edinburgh is to stage three spectacular theatre shows in August, including a multimedia Polish version of Macbeth set in the Middle East. The Royal Highland Centre’s Lowland Hall will be converted into a theatre space for the occasion, and will serve as the venue for the production which cannot be staged in a conventional theatre.

Othello, Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy of the Moor of Venice, is currently being given an urban make-over and performed “in hip-hop” at the Globe theatre on the South Bank, as part of their undertaking of 37 plays in 37 languages in six weeks for the London 2012 Festival. Complete with moniker MC Othello, a rap crew comprising of Iago and Cassio, plus mention of medallions, Adidas trainers, shagging and hos, this is Othello like you’ve never seen it before.

Is it just me, or does this sound unbelievably naff and actually downright cringeworthy? I confess that I have not seen this production, but seriously doubt if I will bother. The initial premise alone of the production being performed in “hip-hop” street patois is enough to make me want to give it a wide berth, and to coin a vernacular phrase, wanna holla. What is more, I speak as one who likes much (old school) hip-hop music and appreciates it as an art form. But I believe there is a time and a place for hip-hop. And that place is not, in my opinion, at the Globe, a venerable establishment ostensibly re-created to put on the works of the world’s greatest playwright.

The moment the besieged British king in Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" defies a far stronger Roman empire to declare his people's independence is filled with tension in any production.

For the South Sudanese troupe putting on the play one chilly spring night in London, that is also the moment where Elizabethan invention and modern African reality collide. Back home, they and their countrymen face the very real threat of war just a year after gaining independence from a powerful ruler.

"We had connotations that could be applicable to the situation in South Sudan," South Sudanese playwright and director Joseph Abuk told Reuters.

Abuk translated Cymbeline into Juba Arabic and co-directed the play alongside Derik Uya Alfred.

Una nueva adaptación de "Hamlet" con gran "carga política", pues refleja lo que ocurre hoy en Cuba, llega a los escenarios de Miami de la mano del dramaturgo cubano-estadounidense Nilo Cruz, traductor de la pieza.

"Hamlet, príncipe de Cuba", de Michael Donald Edwards, "no es un panfleto político", pero la grandeza filosófica del texto original se adapta a la situación actual de la isla, dijo a Efe Cruz, traductor de esta adaptación del clásico de William Shakespeare.

La compañía Asolo Repertory Theatre representará la obra en español e inglés del 11 al 13 de mayo en el Centro de Artes Culturales del Sur de Miami-Dade.

Michael Donald Edwards, artistic director of the Asolo Repertory Theatre, figures the company will make history on Thursday when it stages Hamlet in a new Spanish translation by Nilo Cruz.

William Shakespeare is not susceptible to the dents of time; he is synonymous with it.

...

William Shakespeare’s plays are intricately woven with the quality of timelessness at its core. Despite being the playwright who has been translated into most languages, his plays have hardly lost anything in translation. The intricately woven plots, the nuanced happenings, the perfectly fleshed-out characters, the believable themes and the imperfectness of his heroes – every single thing has only added layers to his writings. Even four centuries down the line, despite being interpreted zillion-or-more times, in spite of translating and re-translating, Shakespeare’s works are an extraordinary example of the ability to survive. His works have been like an avalanche. They might have had humble inceptions in some room somewhere in Stratford-upon-Avon, but they made sure that they rolled centuries along with them.

Britain's greatest playwright has been embraced by every age and every nation. On the anniversary of the Bard's birth and death, Jonathan Bate explains why the world has claimed him for its own.